Islamabad: Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) losses have reached a staggering Rs177.78b according to officials. The liabilities of PSM have massively increased, out of which Rs14b mark-up has to be paid on a loan of Rs36b it obtained from the National Bank of Pakistan and Rs 39.4b are owed to the incumbent government. The total liabilities stand at Rs 138b.
Officials said that the number of daily wage employees has been continually decreasing since December from last year when the number stood at 250 and had fallen to 246 by March 2017. The number of contracted employees stood at 180 in December 2016, which had decreased to 174. The number of regular employees had also decreased to 11,989 by March 2017 from 12,226 in December 2016.
Recently, the government had given a bailout package worth Rs18.5b besides releasing Rs 8.5b for paying employee salaries. The Economic Coordination Committee revealed that PSM hadn’t been operational since June 2015 due to restricted gas supply from Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC). The steel mill had expended its entire finished inventory and couldn’t sell its unfinished stock as well. ECC added that PSM required Rs190m for maintaining its day to day expenses and keep the plant functioning at the designated heating mode.
As per a PSM official, the mill had been operating at 33pc efficiency before an abrupt cut in gas supply from the SSGC took place which led to the ultimate closure of its operations. The operational closure has resulted in an increase in losses for PSM which have been unbridled till now.
